Is the pulpit the new closet?

[barts]

A number of articles and studies are beginning to appear that suggest that many of the clergy are, in fact, atheists. This issue was raised in an AlterNet article, Major Threat to Religion? Clergy People Coming Out as Atheists.

For clergy people, losing religion doesn't just mean asking questions like, "How do I accept the permanence of death?" and "What is my place in the universe?" It means asking the question, "How am I going to pay the rent?" For most clergy members, coming out as atheist means the automatic loss of their livelihood. But staying closeted about their atheism means living a lie. As MacBain said, "Once I realized my faith was gone, I began looking for a way out. My conscience nagged at me continually but I felt that the needs of my family required that I work my way out slowly. I took a temporary job (causing me to work 80 hour weeks) in order to pay some bills off which would make the transition easier. As the weeks passed, the turmoil increased exponentially."

There is a web "safe house" for clergy who are atheists, The Clergy Project, "a safe haven for active and former clergy who do not hold supernatural beliefs".

A study by researchers at Tuft University, Preachers who are not Believers, surveyed a number of atheist clergy.

[The sample is] small and self-selected, and it is not surprising that all of our pastors think that they are the tip of an iceberg, but they are also utterly unable to confirm this belief. They might be deluding themselves, but in any case their isolation from others whom they suspect are in the same boat is a feature they all share, in spite of striking differences in their stories and attitudes. While we couldn’t draw any reliable generalizations from such a small sample of clergy, the very variety of their stories, as well as the patterns discernible in them, suggest fascinating avenues for further research on this all but invisible phenomenon.

In the early 1970s, I met a Canadian priest working in Lampa, Peru. He was about 75. He and I spent some time traveling in the various regions of Peru. I was making a documentary. He took advantage of my Toyota Land Rover to visit parishes. One night as we drank mugs of Pisco brandy on a dock in Pucallpa, he confided that he had stopped believing in God while in the seminary. He stayed with the Church only because it gave him an opportunity to help people, and make a living doing it. He did say that if he was wrong he didn't think God would judge him too harshly.

I suspect that a very large minority of clergy, in fact, do not believe in God, but they simply have no reasonable way to come out of the religious "closet".

[Peter]

I suspect that a very large minority of clergy, in fact, do not believe in God, but they simply have no reasonable way to come out of the religious "closet".

I've suspected the same thing for quite some time. Poor bastards having to work in the religious bullshit factories. It's kinda like an out of control lie. You try to keep it going because the alternative is worse for all the poor devils who would be crushed to know the truth. Only problem is I think the lie is starting to take the upper hand is damage and potential damage to the human race.

Wake up people. It's time to face the truth and deal with it. There are no gods looking out for you. It's just us on this tiny planet out in the boondocks of an ordinary spiral galaxy. We need to come to grips with reality or we're gonna kill each other over the belief that we have the right magic book written by the right celestial dictator.

[Jack]

In some cases I suspect it's more than just lacking a reasonable way to come out of the religious closet. For many priests and pastors of mega-churches it would entail the loss of the only job they've ever had and their sole source of income, as your friend in Peru suggested. Religion can be a highly profitable scam and renouncing the faith tantamount to abandoning your career. Very few people do that without a lot of consideration and reluctance.

[Angry Citizen]

I suspect that a very large minority of clergy, in fact, do not believe in God, but they simply have no reasonable way to come out of the religious "closet".

I suspect your use of language is purposefully vague and likely a trap. What is a "very large minority"? Frankly I'd be shocked if even 1% were atheists.

[xx_mortekai_xx]

I suspect your use of language is purposefully vague and likely a trap. What is a "very large minority"? Frankly I'd be shocked if even 1% were atheists.

i wouldnt. Not in the least.

The priests and church officials are usually the people who are more familiar with the material to begin with. That very thing leads a LOT of people that reject christianity to do so. And the pressure of having to pay rent and needing money to live a comfortable life when you have no other career skills to fall back on (or at least nothing really demonstrable on paper) means having to start over, with none of the social support that was previously available, since his or her entire life is tied up with the church.

Its just easier to stay in the religous closet than deal with all that bullshit.

[Jack]

There's also the social stigma attached to not only leaving the faith but coming out as a non-believer. I read an article this morning about a paster in the South who is being ostracized by his town since announcing his loss of faith. Even his marriage is in peril. And let's not ignore society's attitude about atheists generally.

[Cephus]

From what I've heard from people who are directly involved with the Clergy Project, in the first year they got about 250 or so people who wanted to leave the ministry. When they celebrated their first anniversary and graduated their first ex-minister, another 100 people inquired, wanting to sign up. 350 ministers, pastors and priests who want the hell out of the ministry in a year is something that should bother the religious seriously.

[iolo]

From what I've heard from people who are directly involved with the Clergy Project, in the first year they got about 250 or so people who wanted to leave the ministry. When they celebrated their first anniversary and graduated their first ex-minister, another 100 people inquired, wanting to sign up. 350 ministers, pastors and priests who want the hell out of the ministry in a year is something that should bother the religious seriously.

Quite apart from the theology, it is a bloody awful life unless you can keep up a personal hysteria to armour you against the actual world. Different in America, perhaps, where almost all the religious seem - from here anyway - to be hypocrites.

[Peter]

I suspect your use of language is purposefully vague and likely a trap. What is a "very large minority"? Frankly I'd be shocked if even 1% were atheists.

How many people who work in a sausage plant actually eat sausage? I wouldn't be surprised if 25% of clergy had serious doubts about their sausage. It would be nice to have some data but given the circumstances that's a little too much to ask.

[Cephus]

I suspect your use of language is purposefully vague and likely a trap. What is a "very large minority"? Frankly I'd be shocked if even 1% were atheists.

I'd say it's probably much higher than that. The people who have the most training in religion tend to be the least religious. In the preface of Bart Ehrman's "Jesus Interrupted", he goes into detail about how the seminary tends to destroy people's faith because once you get into the nuts and bolts of the Bible, you find out just how flawed it actually is. It's a matter of the more you know, the less you believe. As such, I'd say that most of the educated ministers out there probably have serious questions about the validity of Christianity, the ones who are most faithful are the ones who are the least knowledgeable.

[Questatement]

... 350 ministers, pastors and priests who want the hell out of the ministry in a year is something that should bother the religious seriously.

Good riddens to bad rubbish.

[barts]

Good riddens to bad rubbish.

Just sayin' but it's this kind of response that raises serious questions, in my mind at least, about religion and its influence on people and their values. Anyone can vilify "bad rubbish", that's easy. It takes real moral courage and sound ethical values, I submit, to show compassion for the "bad rubbish".